Slidell Mayor Freddy Drennan's ''State of the City" address to the Chamber of Commerce Friday (June 27) morning was decidedly more optimistic than in recent years. At times, Drennan was almost effusive about the direction in which the city appears to be heading.

"Yes," he even said at one juncture, a wide smile covering his face, "we will have a Dairy Queen."

Drennan's annual address to the East St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce concentrated on the city's business climate and some of the public projects in the works across the city. Where declining sales tax revenues and the depressed economy clamped down like a hangover on previous addresses, Friday's talk rarely veered to the financial dark side.

About the worst news he could muster? "We're not flush by any stretch," Drennan told the audience at Trinity's Banquet and Reception Hall in Slidell.

But Drennan said sales taxes are showing signs of growth after several flat years. A raft of public works projects are either underway or in the planning stages. And the business climate appears to be healthy.

He said representatives of Stirling Properties, the local arm of the team that is developing the Fremaux Town Center that opened earlier this year, have told him that stores and restaurants at the site are reporting higher-than-predicted sales. More stores are bring built there and construction of a "very, very high end" 296-unit apartment development at the site is expected to begin sometime around September, Drennan said.

Drennan said the owners of North Shore Square Mall, which many feared would take a big hit once the newer shopping area opened, have committed to the city that they have a plan to revitalize the parish's lone indoor mall. The mayor said representatives of Morguard, which operates the mall, have told him they have some strong leads on another anchor tenant to take the place of Sears, which closed this month.

Drennan also touched on some of the new or renovated businesses in the city, as slides flashed behind him of businesses ranging from hotels and Slidell Memorial Hospital's new emergency room to drug stores, gas stations and fast food restaurants. Included in that number is the aforementioned Dairy Queen being built on Gause Boulevard. Drennan said he has fielded a lot of questions about when the "DQ" will open.

Drennan also touched on the city's efforts to get FEMA to cover more of the costs of repairing water and sewer lines it says were damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as well as projects to improve the boating area at Heritage Park, make the intersection of Front Street and Fremaux Avenue more pedestrian friendly, and extend the Tammany Trace farther into the city.